Readwise - AI Tools Nav

What it is for

Readwise is a hosted highlights desk plus Reader: you open Library › Later, pick a document, and read the Notebook highlights, and a 30-day free trial then Full Readwise at $9.99/month billed yearly. Use it when the job is a read-it-later + highlight library you start at a public $, not when you need a $0 local outliner only.

Soft-note: trial then paid. Distinct from Read AI, ReadMe, and Scholarcy.

What makes it unique: the cover is Readwise’s official Reader desk (Library Later, rows The Great Online Game / Building a Second Brain selected / Bitcoin Whitepaper / How to Get Rich (without getting lucky), right Notebook DOCUMENT NOTE + HIGHLIGHTS) from the Hero-Screen@2x still on readwise.io/read — not a pricing-page icon. The Building a Second Brain highlights themselves are ops of Notebook.

Key features

Library › Later — the read-it-later list under Later / Shortlist / Archive (cover still; Reader). One desk. Cover Building a Second Brain sits here. Manage tags sits here as a CTA, not a sixth desk.
Document rows — titled saves with source, time, and tags (cover The Great Online Game Packy McCormick 17 mins / Building a Second Brain Tiago Forte 4h24min / Bitcoin Whitepaper Satoshi Nakamoto). A row, not a Full tile.
Notebook highlights — the right-hand highlight list for the selected doc (cover HIGHLIGHTS “We call someone who is not in control of their mind insane”). A highlight desk, not a Last opened sort.
Document note — the note field above the highlights (cover DOCUMENT NOTE / Add a document note). A note, not a $9.99 meter.
Library locations — Later / Shortlist / Archive plus the left rail (cover; Reader FAQ Inbox / Later / Archive / Shortlist). A location, not an Info tab.
Info / Notebook / Links — the right-rail tabs on the selected row (cover Info / Notebook / Links). A tab desk, not a trial tile.

Manage tags / Last opened on the cover are CTAs (not desks). Full / Highlights / Highlights Lite / Reader-only tiles stay in Pricing. Ghostreader / MCP / Daily Review extras stay off Key features as AI extras / the review habit — Daily Review is priced on Highlights, not a sixth Later desk.

Who it's for

Best fit: readers who will use the 30-day free trial (no card on the Reader FAQ), then stay on Full Readwise at $9.99/month billed yearly while they open a first Library › Later list — not Highlights only $7.99 unless they skip Reader, and not Highlights Lite $5.59 unless they can live without tags, notes, and exports.

Pricing

Verified 2026-10-23 (Asia/Shanghai) from readwise.io/pricing. Figures below are the printed USD yearly cards. Soft-note: 30-day free trial then paid. FAQ: “Readwise is free for first 30 days. After the free trial, Readwise costs a small monthly fee.” readwise.io/read FAQ also prints Full $9.99/month billed annually, or $12.99/month billed monthly.

Full Readwise — $9.99 per month, billed yearly. “Reader and Highlights together.” Unlimited articles, PDFs, EPUBs, emails, YouTube, RSS, and X threads. Highlight and search, text-to-speech, Ghostreader. Import from Kindle, Apple, Kobo, and 40+ sources. Daily Review. Search, organize, and export highlights.
Highlights only — $7.99/mo billed yearly. “Remember more from your Kindle and other highlights. Not included: Access to Reader.”
Highlights Lite only — $5.59/mo billed yearly. Daily Review (email & app). Browse and search the highlight library. Sync new highlights from all sources. Not included: tags & notes, exports, Reader, early access.
Reader only — $7.99/mo. “A home for everything you want to read. Not included: Access to Highlights.” The card we fetched did not reprint “billed yearly” on this tile — quote $7.99/mo as printed.
Trial — 30 days free. Then a paid plan.
Students / academia — 50% off (pricing FAQ: email hello@readwise.io before you subscribe).

Confirm checkout; taxes follow your location. There is no Free $0 forever tile on the cards we fetched.

Limitations / costs

There is no permanent $0 tile. After 30 days you pay Full $9.99/mo yearly (or a single-app card).
Highlights Lite drops tags, notes, exports, and Reader. Full is the combined desk on the cover.
A Reader + highlights desk, not Obsidian’s Bases table. For that table see Obsidian.
The product is not OSS. We omit a GitHub CTA rather than treat a readwiseio/* plugin as the app.

Alternatives

Obsidian — a Bases table when you want App $0 / Sync $4, not Readwise’s Building a Second Brain Notebook.
Logseq — a local Queries + page graph when you want Free forever $0, not Full $9.99 yearly.
Notion AI — writing / Q&A inside Notion when you want workspace Free $0 / Plus $10, not Library › Later.

Official tutorial

Official Readwise channel video: Getting Started with Reader (oEmbed author: Readwise). First-party Reader how-to; the Library Later + Notebook still is the cover. Reader chrome on the video is ops of Later + Notebook, not generate-on-the-highlight-row.

Written path: readwise.io/pricing plus readwise.io/read and the Hero-Screen@2x still.

Website

https://readwise.io/

Source

Catalog row curated for AI Tools Nav. Cover is Readwise’s official Reader Hero-Screen@2x (Library Later + Building a Second Brain selected + Notebook HIGHLIGHTS) — not a pricing icon. Distinct from read-ai / readme / scholarcy. Dollars checked on readwise.io/pricing (30-day trial; Full Readwise $9.99/mo yearly; Highlights $7.99; Highlights Lite $5.59; Reader only $7.99; students 50%). Tutorial oEmbed author: Readwise (@readwise-official).

Last verified

2026-10-23 (Asia/Shanghai) editorial check.